Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea announced the firm has raised $300 million in a Series C funding round led by Paradigm and Coatue. Opensea’s latest capital raise has propelled the company to a $13.3 billion post-money valuation.
Opensea Raises $ 300 Million, Orders $ 13.3 Billion Post-Currency Valuation
In mid-November, a report by Kate Clark and Berber Jin of theinformation.com explained that Openea was setting up new investments after investors allegedly insisted on funding the project. At the time, Opensea’s estimated valuation was $ 10 billion and two sources said: “Investors are claiming part of the startup.”
48 days later, Opensea has revealed it raised $300 million in a Series C finance round. The team says that the new funding will go toward “accelerating product development,” “significantly improve customer support,” “investing in the wider NFT and Web3 community,” and expanding the Opensea team. The funding round was led by Paradigm and Coatue, and a number of other strategic investors joined.
Opensea’s all-time NFT sales reach nearly $ 15 billion, eclipsing competitors and considering launching subsidy program
According to Opensea, the new funding gives the company a post-currency valuation of $ 13.3 billion. Opensea is also the largest NFT market, in terms of sales of all time, as the company recorded $ 14.68 billion in sales from 1,387,357 merchants around the world. Sales have grown by more than 25% in the past 30 days with a recorded volume of $ 2.91 billion. The $ 14.68 billion in sales is much bigger than any other NFT project or market.
For example, the second-largest market, Axie Infinity, has $3.94 billion in all-time sales which is 73.16% lower than Opensea’s sales. Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of Opensea, explained in the funding announcement that the team is creating a grant program to help expand the “entire NFT ecosystem.” At press time, the Opensea platform supports NFTs based on the Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) networks.
“This quarter, we are launching a grant program to give us the opportunity to directly support the developers, builders and creators who are shaping the future of the NFT space,” Finzer said in a statement. “Our ambition is to foster the scale and growth of the broader NFT ecosystem, including raising the profile of emerging creators and investing in the people who are shaping the NFT space for the best today. “
